ANLE2 - Francis Alÿs "interview "

Statut

Francis Alÿs "interview " - 2009_...

Sujet : "The Celebrated Walking Blues"

Auteur : Alÿs Francis - interview par Robecchi Michele

"Francis Alÿs is not an easy man to track down. A perfect mirror image of his work, he seems to be constantly moving from
one place to another, and the wide range of media he uses – from painting to video and performance – can’t help but
reinforce the conviction that with Alÿs we are called to deal with a rather mysterious, if not elusive, figure. Contemporary
managed to meet Alÿs in London a few weeks prior to the opening of Seven Walks, one of his most ambitious projects to
date, realised in collaboration with Artangel and Bloomberg, only to discover that he’s actually a very open, relaxed and
affable character, every inch the articulate conversationalist and very willing to discuss his work in detail. In spite of the
unequivocally high production values behind Seven Walks, Alÿs often emphasises the simple nature of his concepts, and
the fact that he uses the first-person plural when describing the making of his work provides an insight into how much
importance he places on the collaborative side of his practice. Unlike many other projects promoted by Artangel, Seven
Walks revolves around different ideas rather than one single strong proposal, addressing various elements that the artist
acknowledges as typical of the city of London, such as the Coldstream Guards, bottles of milk, the proliferation of CCTV
cameras and the commuting phenomenon. "